Kami ga Kita Tame ni Tochi
by Chyna Rose
Summary: Plots to the right of you, plots to the left of you, secret organizations, mad scientists, best friends who seriously need to be hit over the head with a clue by four so that they come home... People becoming gods, people trying to become gods, and now gods inviting you for tea... oh and don't forget people vanishing into thin air or the zombies.
1. Prologue

**Kami ga Kita Tame ni Tochi**

By Chyna Rose

Disclaimer: Chyna Rose does not own – nor does she claim to in ways beyond legally purchased merchandise – any recognized character, technique, places, or other entity (including 'local' laws of science) in this fan based work. That honor goes largely to Kishimoto-sensei, the good people at Viz, and whoever else just so happens to hold the rights to Naruto minus a few real life gods and goddesses. Chyna Rose does however own Hasegawa Miyuki, her summons, her kekkei genkai, and the other unrecognized characters, techniques, places, and other entities (provided said character is not being borrowed from some other fandom in order to fill some character shaped hole or the other.

Warnings: Foul language, violence, sexual innuendo, adult situations, death, alternate timeline, original characters.

Spoilers: Diverges from canon at the end of the Sasuke and Sai arc, but will have references to events on through the Shinobi World War arc (a.k.a. current American Jump release).

Pairings: Kurenai/Asuma; others to be announced as they happen/are revealed.

Author's Note: This project was started somewhat on a whim for NaNoWriMo 2012, the first one that I decided to participate in. To date this counts as my largest work so far, and has pretty much eaten up my entire November. I was not however, able to hit the goal word count of 50,000. Hell, I barely hit the half way mark of 25,000 (pre-editing). But I tried it at least. Feedback is always welcome. Praise will feed the ego, actual constructive criticism will be taken into account but in the end as the writer I get final say on the way things are written, flames will either be laughed at or discounted entirely depending on my mood. Since I'm never going to please everyone, I might as well just please myself.

**Prologue**

To say that the forest was silent would have been a lie. No forest was truly silent; the flow of the wind amongst the leaves and branches of the trees and bushes, the movements and calls of the small – and those that were not so small – things which lived there. Perhaps there was even a stream or a creek which, lazily or hurriedly, wound its way from high place to low place. Even the winter's cold could not choke the sound from the place; while many animals slumbered and the trees were bereft of leaves, some still wandered the quiet chill, the wind still whistled through the leafless branches, and on occasion a clump of snow would fall to the ground with a thump from overburdened boughs. Even in a forest of bone or scar of a wasteland there was quiet but not silence. To the ears of the dead, however…

The forest was silent and still. Almost unnaturally so. Nerves stretched taunt, waiting. There was something here, unseen. There had to be, be it bear or wolf pack, or tiger, or man with ill intent. No birds, no deer, no rabbits, or squirrels foraging or singing or doing whatever else it was that marked a life meant that there was a predator near. To call out or move would be to become lunch – which did not seem like such a bad idea for himself, but now was not the time. Not when the unseen threat, whatever – or whoever – it was might take the opportunity to become seen and attack. And weren't there rumors of bandits in the area (bandits they had been hired to defend against should they get the bright idea that the client's goods and money was better off in _their_ pockets)? There'd be time enough for lunch afterword, when the client reached the small town of Yanagieda and the danger had passed. But now he had a job to do, even if he hated this part (a trained killer he might be, but no-one said he had to actually enjoy killing; so long as he did not hesitate to do so when he had to).

Every sense on alert they moved on, and still nothing. Not even a breeze to stir the leaves, but perhaps that was a blessing. As tense as they were, such sudden noise and movement would have had them jumping into action; no doubt one of them would lob a kunai at whatever empty branch broke this strange spell, which would not have been a good thing since they would look less like the trained professionals they were and more like the scared children jumping at shadows they would have looked like. Which was quite frankly embarrassing; sure they were young, barely in their teens, but they were seasoned ninja – hell, they were **_chunin_**; so what if the client had kids their age. They were full, blooded shinobi not civilians to be babied and this was far from their first escort mission. Even so…

It was not (just) the opportunity to show to the client that she had not been cheated when Team 10 had been assigned to her that had Choji wishing that whatever it was that was hiding would show itself and attack them. To be able to fight this whatever (or whoever) would mean that it would be _over_ and they wouldn't have to worry about what _might be_ because it _will have been_ and they could relax (relatively speaking since they still had to keep an eye out for whatever else wanted to take swing at them or their client).

There, just out of the corner of his eye, a patch of black on green and brown. No sound, no movement; just a pair of eyes watching them pass by the tree it was perched on. There was, as far as he could tell (it was a bit of a distance away and he didn't have the byakugan), intelligence in those eyes which was not a concrete sign that it wasn't what it seemed to be then since crows (or was it a raven; it was kind of hard to tell for him) were rather smart birds to begin with. However, it made no move toward them so it wasn't currently a direct threat and could be ignored as any potential but not actual threat was. This was a simple C-rank mission to protect silk weaver Ishida Mizumi from the normal threats to her purse and person of traveling as she made her home from Otafuku Gai; nothing was mentioned about someone spying on her and anyone wanting to spy on them was quite frankly inconsequential to the mission at hand so long as the spy didn't launch an opportunistic attack. Choji shivered. Lunch or no lunch, they couldn't leave this forest fast enough.

_(He watched as the kids – and no matter how old they were or what rank they held, they would always be kids to him – and their jonin sensei continued uneasily on with their client in tow unaware of the utter carnage that they had passed by a scant few feet away. The bandits that had hunted in these woods were no more, leaving naught but faded ghosts to haunt this place and bodies to nourish what grass grew under the canopy of the trees. No doubt his mistress would move on once she woke, but for now she slumbered under the watchful eyes of him and his brother.)_


	2. Chapter 1

**Kami ga Kita Tame ni Tochi**

By Chyna Rose

Disclaimer: Chyna Rose does not own – nor does she claim to in ways beyond legally purchased merchandise – any recognized character, technique, places, or other entity (including 'local' laws of science) in this fan based work. That honor goes largely to Kishimoto-sensei, the good people at Viz, and whoever else just so happens to hold the rights to Naruto minus a few real life gods and goddesses. Chyna Rose does however own Hasegawa Miyuki, her summons, her kekkei genkai, and the other unrecognized characters, techniques, places, and other entities (provided said character is not being borrowed from some other fandom in order to fill some character shaped hole or the other.

Warnings: Foul language, violence, sexual innuendo, adult situations, death, alternate timeline, original characters.

Spoilers: Diverges from canon at the end of the Sasuke and Sai arc, but will have references to events on through the Shinobi World War arc (a.k.a. current American Jump release).

Pairings: Kurenai/Asuma; others to be announced as they happen/are revealed.

Author's Note: This project was started somewhat on a whim for NaNoWriMo 2012, the first one that I decided to participate in. To date this counts as my largest work so far, and has pretty much eaten up my entire November. I was not however, able to hit the goal word count of 50,000. Hell, I barely hit the half way mark of 25,000 (pre-editing). But I tried it at least. Feedback is always welcome. Praise will feed the ego, actual constructive criticism will be taken into account but in the end as the writer I get final say on the way things are written, flames will either be laughed at or discounted entirely depending on my mood. Since I'm never going to please everyone, I might as well just please myself.

**Chapter One**

"I don't know you guys…"

Somewhere along the line these get togethers became tradition. Like clockwork on the third Friday of every month, whoever wasn't on a mission, laid up in the hospital (or at least supposed to be; Sakura was a more than competent medic-nin and the Hokage's apprentice and not someone you wanted to run if you escaped from the hospital before the medics said you could just because **_you_** thought you were well enough not to need to be there anymore. She'd know you'd snuck out and she would make her displeasure about that known), or just plain gone gathered together to pretty much hang out over lunch. This month, much to Naruto's displeasure, lunch was okonomiyaki – which wasn't really bad per say; it just wasn't ramen. And while he might eat more than just ramen these days (first Kakashi and then Jiraiya had insisted on that), he didn't have to love it.

"Don't worry; it'll be fine." Ino countered, "I mean, what can go wrong?"

"You just had to say that." Shikamaru said with a groan, passing Choji the mayo before the other boy could ask. After so many years of friendship – so many meals shared, there was no need. On the field of battle or off, their synergy was impeccable. Ino just gave him a _look_ before turning back to the conversation at hand.

"Look," Ino continued, "All we've got to do is get them together somewhere _nice_ for dinner; they'd be good together ,I _know_ that he likes her, and I'm pretty sure she likes him back, but neither of them look like they're going to be doing anything about it so I thought we might, you know, give them a little push; before it's too late." Which was a real concern since, as ninjas, violent death could come for them anytime. And, as season jonin and veterans of the Third Shinobi War, both Asuma and Kurenai had made many enemies (not to mention all the enemies Asuma would have simply because who his father was) who would not hesitate to cut them should they but have the chance. Ino rolled her eyes as Choji continued to look unconvinced, "Oh come on. You _know _Asuma-sensei's never going to ask her out, and you **do** want him to be happy, right?"

Choji nodded glumly and poked the cooking okonomiyaki to see if it was done yet (even though he knew that it wasn't). It wasn't that he didn't trust Ino, or believe her to be right; poking around in their sensei's private life (even if it was for the best) just didn't sit right with him. Besides, he felt that romance was like a good cheese. Sure you could eat it as soon as the curd had firmed up and it would be tasty, but if you waited longer for nature to take its course before serving it would taste even better – even if you had to a couple of years before cutting a wedge. If Asuma-sensei really did like Kurenai the way Ino said, then he would approach her when he was ready and not before, and they shouldn't push things.

"All you have to do is make sure the reservations are set at the restaurant and not say anything to either of them; wouldn't want to ruin the surprise after all." Ino said with a hint of exacerbation before glaring at Shikamaru who had muttered something that sounded too much like 'troublesome'.

There was (relative) silence then, but this time it was a more companionable silence; the kind made by good friends who knew that they didn't have to fill the quiet spaces of time in order to bond. Then Lee and Naruto somehow managed to knock over Neji's tea cup in a bid for the last okonomiyaki on the grill, Choji placed an order for grilled squid, Akamaru turned his begging up a notch, Sai said something inappropriate for which Sakura slapped him (again), and Hinata tried her best to not look like she was trying to sink through the floor.

This was them; the so called Konoha Twelve. Dysfunctional as hell, had so many issues between them that they were practically whole subscriptions, and (Sai aside, but he was learning and they were learning to include him; not think of him as an unwanted outsider – Sakura and Naruto somewhat aside, or as a pale imitation of the idiot Sasuke, but as an integral part of the group as an individual) as tight a bunch as you could ever imagine. Sure they fought and at times hated each other's guts – but that was family for you and while you and your siblings might turn the house into a virtual warzone woe be it to anyone who attacked him or her because he/she was **yours**.

Eventually, even Choji's vast appetite was sated, the bill was settled, and everyone began making their goodbyes to each other in order to head on home. The night was clear, and the company – though boisterous at times – had been good. Good nights like this were not quite rare really, but they all understood that such (relative) peace could not (would not) last forever. They were ninjas, and the threat of war loomed on the wind.

Sarutobi Asuma sneezed, again, getting odd looks from his dining companions. "I hope you aren't coming down with a cold." Kurenai commented calmly over her cup of tea. Asuma shook his head; he was pretty sure he wasn't (and in fact he was slightly more worried about Kurenai possibly coming down with something than him. Aside from the recent spate of sneezes, he hadn't been showing any signs of illness while she had become rather… careful… about what she ate. Since she wasn't the type to diet at the drop of a hat {unlike some younger kunoichi – Ino included – Kurenai was old enough to know that, not only was thinness not the hallmark of beauty and attractiveness for men, but that being an active ninja burned enough calories that excessive weight gain wasn't an issue. Anko, for example, sucked down dango like crazy but you wouldn't know that just looking at her} there had to be some other explanation for her change in eating habits. But Kurenai was a sensible woman, and while she might think that his concern for her was sweet, she didn't need him to play health monitor for her. If there was some sort of medical issue involved, she'd take care of it herself without any prompting from him).

"You know, I really don't envy you Kakashi." Raidou drawled.

"Hmmm?" Kakashi regarded him with one of his (in)famous _looks_ for a brief moment before turning his attention back to what was left of his meal. Everything eaten, of course, without his having revealed his face to his companions no matter how hard they tried to catch a glimpse of it. It had become a bit of a friendly game between them over the years; Them trying to arrange things so that they'd be able to see what was under the mask, him going to creative lengths to stop them without seeming to be even trying. So far, Anko had had the most… creative… idea so far, and even though she ended up failing, she quite frankly didn't care (because Kakashi was **good** and she enjoyed the hell out of her 'consolation prize').

"Ah. Just the hip type of response I expect from my Eternal Rival." Gai stated, thankfully without poking anyone with the stick from the yakitori he was eating (that was Anko's job, although the stick doing the poking was usually a dango stick than a yakitori stick).

"The chunin exams man. It can't be easy to be the last one of your friends to make chunin, and I don't think he knows any of the genin he might be teamed up with for the exam. " Kotetsu said.

"Aren't they in Kumo this year? " Ebisu asked.

"Ah. Then perhaps it's a good thing that I'm not planning on entering him in them." Kakashi replied, giving the others one of his standard eye smiles.

"Bet ya anything the brat's gonna be pissed about that." Anko pointed out.

Kakashi shrugged. A lot of it was quite frankly out of his hands due to the rather politically delicate reality surrounding Naruto. The logistics of finding an appropriate team aside (there really weren't any genin around his age since they had all either been promoted or quit the ninja program one way or another. The sad truth was that a genin had a limited window of opportunity to pass the chunin exam and missing that window was considered a form of career suicide. It wasn't fair – especially for Naruto since it really wasn't his fault that being on the road as Jiraiya's apprentice meant he hadn't gotten a chance to enter a chunin exam other than his first, and that his status as the jinchuriki of the Kyubi as well as the son of both Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina made him into a political time bomb {reviled as they might be, jinchuriki were guarded jealously by their villages since no one wanted the enemy to steal away their weapon to use against them. Add to that enemies that Minato and Kushina had made – Iwa especially – who would probably be all too happy to take out their son since they can't get at them; Naruto might be some random orphan with no known parents to the world at large, but there was enough of a family resemblance for a rather bright individual to make a too accurate guess as to his parentage and well…}, but well, no one had said the world was fair. If the world was fair, Naruto would have his parents, his father wouldn't have killed himself, and Obito would still be alive), Naruto **_had_** just returned to the village and was still getting used to his new teammate (which was not going so well. Sai's personality – or rather, his lack thereof – conflicted greatly with both Naruto and Sakura's, and Naruto just wasn't emotionally ready to 'replace' Sasuke). It would be more disruptive to take him from his team and put him on an entirely new team (who would be noticeably younger and thus somewhat insulting, or older but run the risk of them holding a grudge for losses taken during the Kyubi attack which they might just have been old enough to remember) under a new jonin-sensei (who him- or herself might be holding a grudge against the Kyubi despite the fact that they should know better since any seasoned ninja worth their rank knew the difference between a kunai and the scroll it was sealed inside. But then, who said that emotions were even in the general neighborhood of rationality) then to listen to him whine about missing another chunin exam. Naruto deserved to become a chunin – hell, in many ways he already **was** one but making it an official reality was going to be tricky. No matter how you cut it, politics sucked. "Eh, he'll live."

"And you're not worried about retaliation? I heard about what happened during your bell retest with him and Sakura. The prank king might be dead, but it sure as hell isn't gone." Izumo interjected. And there was the collective wince as everyone remembered how creative Naruto could get when he felt he had a point to prove.

"I call dibs on him when he finally makes rank." Anko called, nearly upsetting the table in her enthusiasm. Power and killing people was all well and good, but a truly good ninja needed creativity – especially in a specialist department like hers. Besides, every Hokage needed something to do in the meantime before they became the Hokage; T&I should suit Naruto even if he didn't have the stomach for torture – and hey, his unique brand of bringing around enemies to his point of view could work wonders in interrogation; especially with those resistant to the normal methods. Unorthodox worked, "What?"

"I think," Gai began carefully marshaling his thoughts, "that Naruto's strengths and inclinations would not be suited to such work – not that there is anything wrong with that particular vocation, and indeed without the information it provides is vital for the safety of our fair village. However it is the sort of occupation to which, much like being a shinobi in and of itself, one needs to have a calling to heed. And Naruto's calling is the path to Hokage; and while I do agree that he will need to bide his time until the day arrives when the hat is passed down to him – and yes, I do believe that the fires of his youth will propel him to achieve his dream – I do not believe that that particular path is the best path for him to take."

"Kid's got a talent for talking people around to his side even if he's got to beat them up first; no torture necessary. Plus he'd be damned good at the information gathering – which you **know** Jiraiya's been working with him on. Besides, he'll need to know about this kind of stuff when he becomes Hokage."

"You think he can?" Ebisu asked.

"Fuck yeah. Kid's got guts and determination. Add to that his resourcefulness, adaptability, that bit of tactical brilliance that shines through every now and again, sheer dumb **luck**, and raw power – even without, well _that_, he's still got a ton of power backing him up… He grows up a bit, gets a bit of training… That's one bet I'd place money on."

Things were quiet for a while as everyone took time to think on that. What Anko had said did have merit; say what you will about him, you couldn't deny that Naruto had the potential to become a great Hokage given a bit more time and maturity. But once again politics reared its ugly head and made what should have been a clear cut deal murky. Becoming the Rokudaime Hokage wasn't as simple as Tsunade saying that, come hell or high water, **_this_** was who she wanted to follow her when she (hopefully) retired. There were _factions_ that needed pacifying; the shinobi council, the civilian council, the clan council (which actually was **not** the same as the shinobi council even though there was a certain amount of overlap), the (largely defunct and mostly ceremonial but kami help you if you **don't** consult them) Council of Elders, the 'Cabinet' (the heads of the various ninja departments like the medical core, cipher core, intelligence, ANBU, the Military Police {which had been rebuilt after the Uchiha Massacre since they **needed** it}, the Academy)… And yeah it wasn't exactly a democratically elected position, but public opinion did matter – even if just a little. Take a kid (and he was still a kid despite being 16 already), say he's going to be in charge when you step down no ifs ands or buts, but don't get enough people (or just enough of the **_right_** people), and you'll have a bloody civil war on your hands which would render the position of Hokage useless since one needs for there to be a village to lead if one wishes to become the village leader. Besides, the kid had less political savvy than a sheep (although there was a good chance he'd grow out of it. Eventually) so would need a majority political backing if he wished to last more than a week as Hokage.

Currently, the standings were iffy. _Politically speaking_ there were a few factions to consider. There was the 'Naruto is the Kyubi reborn' faction which was mainly made up the civilian sector and ninjas not from a clan background, the 'Naruto is our massive charka bomb and must be treated like it' faction (Danzo and his cohorts), the 'Naruto might be a bit of a loudmouth idiot but I will stand behind him' faction (mostly the ninja clans, upper level ninjas, and pretty much anyone who had spent more than ten minutes in his presence {cause yeah, he was just like that}), the 'who cares about Naruto; fuck/praise Tsunade' factions, the 'who cares about Naruto; fuck/praise the Yondaime and/or Sandaime' factions, and the 'I don't give a fuck; just leave me the hell alone/screw you so long as I get mine' faction (admittedly the smallest and the one with the least amount of political pull; also held most of the foreign spies that were as endemic as cockroaches). It actually divided up nicely with three of those factions being pro-Naruto, three anti-Naruto, and the last two pretty much neutral on the whole Naruto issue which kept things pretty balanced in terms of the political value Naruto carried; the six most charged factions had just enough political sway to give their opposite pause instead of being able to claim the victory of the majority and see their view enacted. The issue was so charged that there were betting pools in some of the other villages on which side would eventually win out; Suna's Kazekage had pretty much gone on record as pulling for the pro-Naruto factions (which, when you consider Gaara's history with Naruto, was entirely understandable. Hell, things ever went south and Naruto escaped with his life, he'd have no shortage of villages willing to take him in **without** taking his status as the Kyubi jinchuriki, who his parents were, or who his mentor was into account).

Kurenai quietly excused herself for the bathroom (without either Anko or Yugao going along for the ride as normally inevitably happens; content to stay with the rest of the group eating, drinking and gossip err… information gathering), leaving everyone else to contemplate their heavy thoughts. Or their navels; it really didn't matter which. All that mattered was that the quiet moment brought on by the thought that maybe – just maybe – one ramen obsessed situational idiot dressed in (thankfully less in terms of both brightness and sheer amount) orange might just have what it takes to see his (some would say outlandish while others would say foolish) dream become reality. And then because there's only so much seriousness one could have (even if one happened to be Ebisu) while having a night out with your buds, the silence was broken by levity.

"Oh, did I tell you what happened when I was stuck in the mission room yesterday?"

_(Once upon a time there was a princess trapped in a tall tower made of ice. No princes came looking to rescue her. And so she slept on in her icy tomb.)_

"Say Kou,"

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever wonder about it?"

"It what?"

"You know… it." Takuma replied gesturing vaguely with one hand. Kouki sighed in resignation; he should have known better than to expect clarification from Takuma when he was given a chance to let his mind out for a wander. Now don't get him wrong, Takuma was a good man and a good ninja but when left to his own devices, well… And certainly what they were doing (taking time out for a pit stop while on patrol; had Kouki been a more poetic or philosophical man, he'd be able to paint some sort of analogous parallel between taking a long piss and random thinking) didn't require all that much attention so as to give either of them something concrete to think about.

Having worked with the man long enough to know that if he didn't give Takuma an (honest enough) answer, he'd keep bringing up the topic again and again at random times until he got one. Luckily Takuma would accept any answer as long as it **was** an answer, and he would give Kouki time to think of one so long as he didn't look like he was trying to dodge the question or ignore him. A flash of something off to the side caught his eye as he looked around thinking about what Takuma had asked. "Hey, you see that?"

"Ko-u-u-u…" Takuma whined, thinking that his friend and comrade was ducking his question.

"No. Seriously. There's something over there." Kouki said, pointing over to where he saw the thing. Squinting a bit, he could just about swear that it looked like a person, "Shit, I think it's a girl."

Finishing up with a final shake or two and tucking themselves away, the pair palmed kunai and approached the figure. She stood at the tree line, partially hidden behind a tree. Pale with long dark hair and dressed in a worn yukata, she (and yes she was a she) looked like she couldn't be older than sixteen. Many would dismiss her as not a threat (for the hand that wasn't braced against the tree hung limp and empty at her side), but if there was one thing that a lifetime as a ninja showed you it was that appearances could be fatally deceiving. Cautious, Kouki crept closer keeping his kunai out of her sight – _just in case_. "Miss?"

The girl barely looked up, hiding her face in the shadow of her hair. As if he and Takuma were not there. Yet there could be no doubt in Kouki's mind that the strange girl was aware of how close to her they actually were. And in a way, it was perhaps for the best that she had stumbled upon them and not say Akio, who had a… taste… for young girls. Murders, thieves, and nuke-nin they might be, Takuma and Kouki drew the line at rape – especially concerning young girls (and as for children… well, there was a **reason** they had become nuke-nin). "Am I pretty?" she whispered.

"I'm sorry?" Kouki asked, not sure he heard her right; not because her voice had been too low or she had mumbled, but because the question she had asked had come from farther out in left field than any of Takuma's.

"Am I pretty?" she asked again. Her voice remained quiet and oddly hollow but not in the way that indicated that she was just a puppet being wielded by one of Suna's puppeteers.

Kouki gripped his kunai harder, alarms bells blaring their dire warnings in his head, and prepared to take a step back in order to put some room between the girl who definitely was a threat. It was the last thing he or Takuma did.

Sand never slept. From the rising of the sun to the setting of the moon and those all too brief moments in between, somewhere the sands of the desert were moving. And in a (maybe if you squint and look at it sideways) way he was he was the sand so he never slept either. Well, he never had before at least so long as he could remember (No one remained alive who _knew_ him as an infant – treachery and a demon's rage saw to that – so there was no one who could say what happened then. Could an infant who had not even the strength to lift even his own head avoid sleep? And how old was one when the mind began to form? In that time when there was no power how much of the child was lost to the monster, or did the monster also have to bow to the frailties of a new life?).

At any rate, the fact that he was still awake at this late hour was no surprise even if it was now safe for him to sleep these days (a lifetime of habits as they say…). It also wasn't a surprise to note that he wasn't the only one awake at this hour; like the sands, ninja villages never slept although they did tend to run on a bit of a skeleton crew from sometime after midnight until just about dawn. Medical and security emergencies never learned how to read a clock after all, and there was always something that needed doing somewhere. And some of the creative quirks inherent in the Puppeteer Corps meant that often one or another of them was up into the wee hours of the night – usually sequestered in their favored workroom tweaking some part of a design for one of their puppets. So the fact that Kankuro was awake at oh dark thirty in the morning came as no surprise to Gaara. What **was** a surprise was **where** Kankuro was; or rather where he **wasn't**. His rooms, the kitchen, the bathroom, and the hallways between them (seeing as Kankuro wasn't scheduled for a night watch patrol shift until sometime next month and he didn't have that frenzied 'oh crap something went so beyond FUBAR it isn't funny' aura that indicated an emergency those explanations for why he was awake so late at night didn't really count) were not where he was nor was he prone to wandering the halls in fits of insomnia (that was Gaara's thing since even _he_ got tired of {evil} paperwork and was pretty much the only Kage who could usually keep on top of the stuff).

"This is not like you." Gaara observed, nearly causing Kankuro to have a heart attack. Even with Gaara's somewhat sudden change of heart (because it took him a long enough time to fight the inertia of who and how he was in the past that one could see the amount of time involved yet still stemmed from a single incident) Gaara was powerful to kill someone with but a thought and, for far too long, with little to no provocation and at least some amount of malice (of course back then, he somehow managed to eat cereal and take showers with malice; rather some sort of demonic radiation than a conscious emotion really). Plus that meant that Kankuro hadn't been paying attention since Gaara didn't sneak around as a general rule (not his style and as he rarely took missions that would require that kind of stealth, there really was no need for him to do so). Not a good thing for a ninja – even if you're little brother wasn't out to kill you for breathing (which sometimes was considered a good day before Gaara was calmed down out of his biju induced sociopathic tendencies after the failed invasion of the leaf/run in with Naruto's unique and surprisingly effective brand of combat therapy).

It would be pointless for Kankuro to tell Gaara not to do that again so he didn't bother with that, instead; aside from the whole Gaara outranking him militarily speaking thing (which trumped the whole birth order thing), Gaara wasn't all that good at taking other's orders. Sure he'd take their advice into consideration and took other people into account, but he only did something if he wanted to do it no matter what anyone else thought. Drove the Council absolutely nuts, but at least they didn't have to worry about anyone trying to strong arm into something just because 'he was still a kid' (and yes, people had tried at first. Taking no as a complete answer worked much better when you could point to the bloodstain on the floor that used to be the last person who wouldn't listen when you said that your no means no and no underhanded tactics would be tolerated. At the very least it prompted them to try laying out logical reasoning why Gaara should do what they were asking – and if the argument had been compelling enough, Gaara had changed his mind). _"So?"_ he seemed to ask by settling his face into his habitual sneer. He would not offer up excuses for his late night jaunt; so long as he avoided certain high security spots he was free to come and go as he pleased – it was in an odd way his house too.

Gaara just stared back at him impassively._"I care about you, and I worry."_ Ultimately it didn't matter why Kankuro was out and about; his reasons were his own and really, who was Gaara to judge another's insomnia inspired antics. At least Kankuro wasn't doing anything particularly dangerous or damaging (or even really bizarre; you'd be surprised what some people would get up to especially once you added alcohol and ninja training into the mix and Konoha was **_not_** the only village to foster pranksters in its ranks. Luckily for the idiot who decided it was a bright idea to pants Gaara, all that happened to him was a semi-permanent assignment maintaining and patrolling Suna's sewer system). But he had to admit that he was a bit curious and perhaps even a bit worried (since this was not normal behavior for his brother, and a sudden change in behavior was often an indication that something was wrong, and thus worth worrying over. When he had his change of heart after they left Konoha that first time, both Kankuro and Temari were worried enough that Temari had actually asked him if he had a fever).

Kankuro and Temari did worry about him; especially now that they've gotten to know Gaara the person rather than Gaara the homicidal monster (who not even Gaara knew until he ran fast first into a blonde warped mirror and shattered). More than being their Kazekage (a relatively recent development), he was their baby brother and their last bit of family left alive. Sure he was a bit prickly, generally asocial, and just didn't get some things they took for granted, but he was family and they did love him despite everything (or maybe because of everything; when he decided to turn over a new leaf after putting back the pieces of his psyche that Naruto had shattered, he started with **them**). And then they nearly lost a little over two months ago; hell, for a while they **did** loose – and it was only the quick actions of Elder Chiyo (with an assist from Naruto) that they were able to get him back. Add in Kankuro's own close call with Sasori and his poisons… and it really shouldn't surprising that they'd taken to hovering over Gaara in a way; not that Kankuro would ever come out and admit that that's what he was doing because that kind of thing was what pussies did and he sure as hell wasn't a pussy (Temari, in his mind had a little more lee-way being that she was a girl and you expected girls – yes, even tough as nails Suna kunoichi – to do things like that. Kankuro might be a good guy {relatively speaking}, but he sure as hell wasn't _nice_).

The silence between the brothers stretched on a while longer, growing more and more awkward as time passed. Neither brother seemed to know what to say to break the silence and the longer things went, the more saying anything seemed to be a desperate grasping at straws in order to break the silence.

Kankuro shrugged; _"You don't have to you know; I'm perfectly fine to take care of myself."_

Had Gaara actually possessed eyebrows, he would have raised one. _"Just as you did when you went after Sasori on your own?"_

Kankuro waved it off with a one shoulder shrug. _"I did what I had to do; we needed to get you back no matter the cost."_

Gaara frowned. _"You nearly died."_

Kankuro answered by sneering again and crossing his arms. _"So? You did. And if it wasn't for Granny Chiyo you would've stayed dead."_

Gaara's eyes hardened, hiding the barest hint of fear. _"I won't lose you or Temari; I couldn't stand it."_

_"You won't bro. Not if I have any say in it." _Kankuro softened (as much as he ever did; he didn't **_do_** mushy), arms falling back to his side, "Well. That was a good… talk…" And yes Kankuro was entirely aware how ridiculous that statement sounded considering neither of them had really said a word. He didn't need Gaara's sanity questioning look (a.k.a. the 'were you breathing in varnishes again?' look) to tell him that, "I'll just be going then…"

Kankuro did not run away from Gaara (he swore three years ago never to do that again). But if he was a bit hasty in returning to his rooms… Gaara watched him go before turning around and leaving himself. The halls of the Kazekage's tower (and residence) wouldn't patrol themselves, and the hours wouldn't fill themselves after all.

Hoshigaki Kisame was going to die. Painfully. Slowly. But oh, it was worth it. So very worth it. Well since his partner was going to kill him (kid really needed the stick pulled out of his ass), he might as well enjoy himself while he still had the chance. He openly leered at the small group of gaily dressed giggling girls eyeing them from behind their fans and painted smiles. Downing his shot of sake, he leaned back in his chair. "This is the life."

Itachi just glared at him all that harder before turning his attention to his own cup. Most of the time, he and Kisame got along surprisingly well (for S class psychotic murders who it seemed had no compunction about killing a person just for looking at them wrong and were considered criminals of the worst sort in their home villages and them some) but at times like these he was all too willing to cheerfully strangle the life out of the older man (and he did not consider himself to be a violent man). After all, he just had to drag Itachi into a brothel (even if it was a nice, rather upscale one; and hey, maybe he wouldn't _have_ to kill Kisame – Kakuzu would be all too happy to once he found out about the bill) didn't he. "I hate you."

Kisame snorted and refilled his cup. It looked like the group of them were almost getting brave enough to approach despite Itachi's aura of doom and gloom (and hint of Killing Intent that he didn't bother to hide; you'd think such things would be a deterrent to people, but no – it actually seemed to attract them more) and his freakish looks (for he might have been many things, but never anything but realistic when it came to his appearance. Bluish skin, pseudo gills, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and fish like eyes were not considered attractive by any stretch of the imagination. Not that he let it stop him from getting laid though). Once again proof that Itachi was too much of a pretty boy for his own good Kisame guessed (not that he was complaining; he was pragmatic enough to know that probably wouldn't get half the ass he got if it wasn't for girls finding Itachi hot).

One of the girls broke off ahead of the herd and reached the table they were camped out at. Definitely a fangirl if the quite simpering and coquettish looks aimed at Itachi (who was pointedly ignoring her) was any indication. He flashed her a toothy smile and she only shied away a tiny bit; Kisame had to admit that the girl had guts (and was it his imagination, or did the fine piece of ass in the dragonfly patterned kimono just perk up a bit? He sure hoped so – she looked like just his type). Of course she had yet to say anything, instead waiting for her target to acknowledge her presence, which kind of negated all the points she had been given for not flinching away from him. Kisame almost pitied her in a way since if she was going to wait on Itachi to make the first move she was in for a long wait – **if** Itachi bothered in the first place. One thing Kisame had learned from years of dragging a protesting Itachi to brothels (having decided that Itachi needed laid, and then laid more often) was that the kid just did not do passive or demure.

"Would you girls care to join us?" Kisame asked since it was clear that Itachi wasn't going to any time soon. Dragonfly Girl had managed to shake off the friends who had been doing their best to hold her back for some reason only known to them and had made it to the table he and Itachi had laid claim to. She nodded happily and plunked down next to Kisame with nary a 'don't mind if I do'. An ugly frown flitted briefly across Fangirl's face; perhaps because Itachi was still ignoring her in favor of shooting subtle glares at Kisame, or because Dragonfly Girl had broken some unspoken rule of decorum or something. In the end Fangirl oh so carefully and gracefully took a seat next to Itachi.

"So," Kisame began as he poured Dragonfly Girl a drink and topped up his own. Fangirl (who it seemed was intent on getting on his bad side as well as that of his partner's; the way she had sniffed at Dragonfly Girl's antics was way too reminiscent of the nobility and rich merchants they'd run into who tended to view anyone who strayed from the Proper way of doing things as lower than dirt. If there was one thing that Kisame and Itachi agreed on, it was that they hated people like that) was content to pour her own drink as was only proper and make sure that Itachi's cup never ran out. "What do we call you two beautiful girls?"

"I'm Sachiko." Dragonfly Girl answered with a dazzling smile.

"Chiko." Offered up Fangirl.

"Nice to meet you Sachiko." Kisame said genuinely, "Chiko." Flatly politely; very much fuck off and leave us/me alone. Maybe if he was rude enough to her she'd get a clue and go away to bother someone else so that he could push Itachi off on someone who wasn't a bitch. If there was one (Sachiko aside). Too bad Itachi'd never go for a threesome even if Kisame swore himself blue (or rather, bluer) that he wouldn't lay a hand on his ass (easy enough to do since Kisame didn't swing that way – and no matter how girlie looking Itachi was, he was still all guy); if the other girls were all more like Chiko than Sachiko, then the slim chance that he'd be able to convince the straight laced and way too uptight Itachi to get laid would have gone up in smoke 'cause while he was willing to share Sachiko, he wasn't planning on going without tonight. He hadn't ever been altruistic – not even when he was dragging around a not quite fifteen year old partner in hopes of getting said partner's cherry popped (so why on earth would he be now?). A quick nonverbal conversation with Itachi decided whether or not to give the girls their real names as opposed to pseudonyms (which basically ended up with Itachi pointing out that seeing as Samehada was being kept in plain sight hiding their identities by giving out false names was kind of moot), "I'm Kisame, and this dour guy is Itachi."

Chiko and Sachiko made all the appropriate noises of greeting and settled in to business of trying to entice the men into their respective beds. Chiko seemed determined to flirt her way into Itachi's interest; batting her eyes at him like a love sick puppy and oh so gently touching his arm 'by accident' – completely ignoring the fact that maybe Itachi didn't want to be touched unless and until **he** decided it was ok and allowed it. Sachiko it was turning out seemed to have brains as well as (metaphorical; since if it was also literal, well…) balls didn't even bother to try to touch Kisame. Instead she paid attention to the men and their surroundings, spotted Samehada resting against the wall in arm's reach, and asked a reasonable question in order to start a conversation and perhaps get to know the man who (hopefully) would be sharing her bed. "So I take it that you are both ninjas?"

"Yeah, we are." Kisame said with a nod seeing as there was no reason to hide the truth (well, part of the truth anyway – the harmless part. Kisame wasn't stupid enough to admit to being a nuke-nin or a part of the Akatsuki since attaining those statuses meant that they had pissed off a lot of people who would gladly see them dead. That they had hardly been discrete in their travels seeing as they hadn't taken any steps to disguise who they were, such as ditching the red cloud print cloaks, was ignored).

"That must be an interesting career." Sachiko continued, leaning closer to Kisame. When she gazed up at him, it was more appreciative than coy which suited him just fine. Chiko however, murmured pleasant excuses for taking her leave of them after Itachi not too gently (yet not rough enough to have security come down on them and toss them out) removed her hand from his person. Good riddance to bad rubbish as far as Kisame was concerned – even if it did mean that once again Itachi would remain in the dining room glaring a ten foot radius of personal space while Kisame got laid. Ah well, wouldn't be the first time that had happened and most likely wouldn't be the last.

"It sure is. Why the stories I could tell you…" Kisame said, putting his arm carefully around Sachiko.

"Oh?" Sachiko asked, putting a delicate hand on his very solid thigh.

Kisame nodded with a toothy grin, flexing minutely in order to give her imagination something to think about. From the looks she was giving him, she was definitely intrigued. Rising and both grabbing Samehada (because he refused to leave the sword behind, even with Itachi watching it) and the sake, he began to walk Sachiko off in search of a private room. "Now normally, I don't tell this story but…"

Light glinted off of the edge of the sword in Sasuke's hand as he waited half-kneeling. A moment passed and no one else cam near him. Threat obviously over, Sasuke sheathed his sword with practiced ease and rose to the sound of quiet applause. The applause hadn't been expected, but Sasuke barely flinched anyway. When it came to Orochimaru, there were certain things you just did not do.

Sasuke knew his duty. Ignoring the few medics who swarmed in to collect his felled opponents, Sasuke approached Orochimaru with precise measured steps. Anything other than a projected aura of calm, cool, and collected was considered _sloppy_ and _weak_ – and if there was one thing that Orochimaru absolutely loathed, it was weakness in his subordinates. Not quite in reaching distance, Sasuke dropped into a bow in front of his master.

"Well done." Orochimaru praised hollowly, signaling for Sasuke to stand. Sasuke did so and awaited further orders. He knew, just as Kabuto (who as always stood at Orochimaru's side) and Orochimaru himself knew, that Orochimaru did not give praise lightly – or often at all. Of course Sasuke knew that he had done well; he was a prodigy (although he still fell short of his brother Itachi, much to his displeasure) and Orochimaru's favored heir waiting on the day that Orochimaru would claim his body as his own. To not have done well – especially at something as simple as a _training spar_ – would've been a fuck up of the highest order and would've ended _painfully_ for Sasuke. Which meant only one thing. Orochimaru wanted to _talk_.

"Tell me," Orochimaru began as he beckoned Sasuke closer, "How goes things with your current team?"

"They have proven themselves to not be completely useless." Sasuke replied blankly. He hadn't been fooled by Orochimaru's faked interest cloaked by the pleasant inquiry. Unlike Konoha, Oto didn't care all that much about teamwork; power was what was most important there. Missions were still assigned to teams as that was still the best method for completing the mission, but you knew that your teammates were just waiting for an opportunity to stick a kunai in your back so you'd better stab them there first. There was only one reason why Orochimaru would manufacture concern about Sasuke's relationship with other people: the Sharingan. Or rather, the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan. Orochimaru knew that he was incapable of forming the kind of relationship/friendship that he would need in order to evolve the Sharingan into its next level. Unfortunately (infuriatingly) it seemed that Sasuke was unable (or was it unwilling) to form such bonds as well. He had come close with the Kyubi brat, but in the end he had been unable to kill the other boy (of course, the question was how much of that was due to the fact that it was exceedingly difficult to kill a jinchuriki and how much was Sasuke being too weak to land that final blow). And ever since then, he had not let himself get close to anyone.

Orochimaru frowned at that, but didn't say anything. There was still a bit of time left for Sasuke to evolve his sharingan into the mangekyo sharingan, but not all that much. His current plan for that was just not working since Sasuke was just barely tolerating the various teams he'd been put on. And in some ways Orochimaru couldn't blame him; neither of them could stomach fools for very long. So perhaps it was time to change tactics; Sasuke was at that age after all, and there was a chance that a lover would succeed where teammates failed. Well it was worth a shot to try anyway, and even if it failed there were other avenues to explore – there had to be a **reason** behind why killing a loved one evolved the sharingan. And even if he never got the mangekyo sharingan to manifest, the regular sharingan was nothing to sneeze at. "And your training?"

"As expected, it goes well." Sasuke replied. Inside though he was seething. He hadn't lied to Orochimaru; his training was going well. However, it was **_going too slowly_**. He was advancing in leaps and bounds but it was still not enough; he still hadn't caught up to Him. Sometimes, in the dark of the night when he was alone and there was no one there to catch even the edge of a thought of treason against Orochimaru, he wondered if Oto wasn't holding him back as much as Konoha had been. He had all the time to hone his skills that he could want, an entire library of jutsus he could work through, teachers willing and able enough to devote their full attention to him so long as it didn't interfere with what Orochimaru had assigned them to do (for they had standing orders to aid Sasuke unless Orochimaru specifically stated that whatever project he had put them on was not to be interrupted even for that), and **real** missions (not the D-rank crap he had to put up back in Konoha; missions that put his skills to use rather than let them languish) when he cared to. But even so…

"I see." There really wasn't much that Orochimaru could say to that since, as Sasuke had already pointed out, the answer was to be expected. To Orochimaru, Sasuke's training wasn't all that important to him. It was something to keep Sasuke occupied with and give him a reason to stay rather than going off on his own in search of more power, with a side benefit of building the muscle, memory, and chakra stores of the body up so that Orochimaru wouldn't have to waste time doing that once he took it over and made it his. Time, which would be better spent taking advantage of his new sharingan. "Come," he said, standing, "There is a new someone new I wish to introduce you to; I am sure that you will find what she has to teach you… enlightening."


	3. Chapter 2

**Kami ga Kita Tame ni Tochi**

By Chyna Rose

Disclaimer: Chyna Rose does not own – nor does she claim to in ways beyond legally purchased merchandise – any recognized character, technique, places, or other entity (including 'local' laws of science) in this fan based work. That honor goes largely to Kishimoto-sensei, the good people at Viz, and whoever else just so happens to hold the rights to Naruto minus a few real life gods and goddesses. Chyna Rose does however own Hasegawa Miyuki, her summons, her kekkei genkai, and the other unrecognized characters, techniques, places, and other entities (provided said character is not being borrowed from some other fandom in order to fill some character shaped hole or the other.

Warnings: Foul language, violence, sexual innuendo, adult situations, death, alternate timeline, original characters.

Spoilers: Diverges from canon at the end of the Sasuke and Sai arc, but will have references to events on through the Shinobi World War arc (a.k.a. current American Jump release).

Pairings: Kurenai/Asuma; others to be announced as they happen/are revealed.

Author's Note: This project was started somewhat on a whim for NaNoWriMo 2012, the first one that I decided to participate in. To date this counts as my largest work so far, and has pretty much eaten up my entire November. I was not however, able to hit the goal word count of 50,000. Hell, I barely hit the half way mark of 25,000 (pre-editing). But I tried it at least. Feedback is always welcome. Praise will feed the ego, actual constructive criticism will be taken into account but in the end as the writer I get final say on the way things are written, flames will either be laughed at or discounted entirely depending on my mood. Since I'm never going to please everyone, I might as well just please myself.

**Chapter 2**

Tsunade looked up from her ever present paperwork as Naruto walked through the door; they were all present then. Good. She could begin then. After, of course, giving Naruto a chance to say something regarding the team she had called together for the mission. Even with a three year gap, experience said that Naruto **would** say something – either to her, his teammates, or both – despite the fact that it really wasn't his place to. A proper ninja wouldn't dare question her choice in team as it circled too close to insubordination, but Naruto was hardly a proper ninja (which was not the same thing as an _effective_ or a _good_ ninja. Say what you would of his unconventionality, he somehow managed to get the job done baring that one glaring exception which no one sane would blame him for. After all, it wasn't **_Naruto's_** fault that Sasuke had defected). Apparently though Naruto had been learning how to behave like a good little ninja; he just raised a questioning eyebrow but otherwise held his tongue. "Now then, I'm sure that you are all wondering why I called for you. Two months ago, we began hear rumors about an unnatural disaster occurring in the small mining settlement of Kuro-ba Chuku. In that time we have heard nothing from them and haven't received our usual shipments of ore from them. I need you four to go in and find out what happened and use your judgment in dealing with whatever effects linger."

"So you think they're all dead?" Sakura asked, somewhat concerned. At least the team formation made sense even though they probably could use a seasoned jonin in addition. Her to deal with any medical assistant needed up to and including performing autopsies to find out what killed the residents – especially if it looked to be the work of a pathogen, Hinata for the byakugan and its ability to see what someone who was regularly sighted might miss as well as aid her since Hinata did have some understanding of medical jutsus, both Tenten and Naruto to play bodyguard in case whoever took out the settlement decided to come back and take **_them_** out.

"It seems likely. The residents of Kuro-ba Chuku were not novice miners; there would have been enough people not working in the mine at all times to ensure that there would be at least one person to send for help if there was a cave in or gas leak and considering what they were mining, they would have taken precautions in regards to bandits. That something obviously happened and we have received no official word is very… telling." Tsunade said with a frown. She didn't like this at all. It **_was_** possible that the people of Kuro-ba Chuku were all alive and (mostly) unharmed, slim as that chance was, but the implications of that being the truth… Chakra conductive iron was more precious than gold or silver, at least as far as the hidden villages were concerned and therefore were as jealously guarded as the villages themselves (if not more so). The mines of Kuro-ba Chuku had been built around a recently discovered new vein of chakra conductive iron which fell well inside the borders of Hi no Kuni, which firmly placed it under the concern of Konoha. However, the very nature of what was contained in the mine made it a very tempting target for other hidden villages despite the fragile peace that currently held. Oto, for example, would see nothing wrong with taking the valuable resource by force as they seemed unconcerned by the prospect of war with Konoha (see their invasion attempt during the chunin exam three years ago) and there were other groups not aligned with any village who'd jump for the ore rights (both for their own use and to sell in market for a marked up price). It was entirely too possible for a group of enemy ninja to take over the settlement and divert the ore away from Konoha for their own purposes without killing everyone there or letting a distress call get out. Which meant that the team could very well be walking into a trap. Luckily all four of them were far from helpless, so even if it was a trap there was a good chance that they'd be able to get themselves and as many survivors as they could out.

"Why us?" Naruto asked, honestly confused. He wasn't stupid or (totally) situationaly unaware; he got why Tsunade'd need to send in such a versatile team – with so much unknown, they couldn't know if it was a medical mission or a combat one. But he was still (technically) a genin, and the girls were only chunin (which wasn't a slam against them because he **_knew_** that chunin or not the girls were **good**); why not assign a jonin to this mission instead of one of them – or even in addition to them? For example, use Neji instead of Hinata if you needed the byakugan (not that he didn't prefer Hinata to her cousin; Neji might've mellowed out a bit since Naruto had given him a smack down in the chunin exam, but Naruto still thought he was a bit of a jerk) and was already a jonin (and no, he wasn't sore about that at all).

Sakura turned to lecture Naruto on just why a team with a medic, a scout, and two heavy combat specialists (one for long range, the other for short, and both of them good when it came to covering the mid range), but stopped as Tsunade subtlety shook her head. In away, Naruto's question had been right; usually a mission as delicate as this would call for more experienced ninjas. "Because you four are the best out of what we've got available for this mission. Your versatile mix of skills means that you would be prepared for whatever happened in Kuro-ba Chuku be it an epidemic, natural disaster such as a cave in or a fire, or an attack from enemy forces. And if nothing else, I can trust the four of you to send back information on what happened based on what you discover there – **any** information you can get would be helpful since we don't have a clue as to what's going on there. Now, when you get there, I want you to proceed cautiously since we have no way of telling you what you will encounter when you arrive there. Kuro-ba Chuku is east of the Valley of the End, near the border between Hi no Kuni, Akatsuki no Kuni, and Taki no Kuni on our side of the border. I expect you four to be ready to leave tomorrow at eight. Any questions?"

Seeing as the mission outline had been about as straight forward as it could be (we have no idea what's going on so pack for bear since your guess is as good as ours and find out) and Tsunade had actually answered Naruto's question (either the jonin don't have the right skills or are on other missions, so they physically can't go on this one), the four shook their heads. They were confident (Naruto more so, Hinata less – at least as far as her part in the whole affair went, but she'd do her damned best not to let down Naruto or the rest of her team) that they'd be able to handle whatever the mission threw at them – so long as ghosts weren't involved. Naruto, despite the fact that he was virtually immortal and could survive things that would take down if not cripple most mortals and had the biju which gave other monsters nightmares sealed within him, was deathly afraid of ghosts. And possibly zombies – but at least he could hit zombies, unlike ghosts (and yes, he was quite aware that it was an irrational fear and that both ghosts and zombies {at least, zombies the way they were depicted in popular fiction} didn't actually exist). Tsunade gave them one last calculating look before nodding to herself and releasing them to prepare for their mission. "Dismissed."

Preparations for the mission took the rest of the day. First they had to co-ordinate with each other over what they needed to bring (**not** over ramen since we need your attention on this Naruto, although food would probably be a good thing. Why don't we grab some take out from that Chinese place near Ichiraku's and then plan in your place?). Some stuff, like weapons (and Tenten pretty much had that area under control) and spare underwear, was obvious. Other stuff was less so. True they needed to bring plenty of medical supplies, but what kinds? And did they need to bring the black sealing scrolls for corpses, and if so, how many? What about survival gear like tents and sleeping bags? And, perhaps most important of all, _what were they forgetting_ (because it was inevitable that they would end up needing something they hadn't even thought they might need to bring – which would be par for the course really). In the end they figured out a decent enough list of what they thought they'd need (storage seals were your friend – plus it gave Naruto an opportunity to get more practice making them), as well as some plans for getting their hands on what they didn't think they'd need but as it turned out needed anyway. Then came assembling everything they thought they needed and making sure it was ready to go (read, double or triple check all weapons and then semi-obsessively sharpen any that might even **_think _**about going dull – especially if you were Tenten), followed by making the usual arrangements needed to take care of things for them while they were out of the village for an unspecified amount of time (letting various friends and family know that they would be gone, postponing appointments until they got back, and – at least in Naruto's case – finding someone to water plants) and (restless) sleep.

Morning dawned, and with a few last goodbyes they were off, traveling at speed by way of the ninja tree highway. The trip out to Kuro-ba Chuku was rather uneventful. They didn't encounter more than the odd squirrel or bird on the way and made good enough time that they could get a decent, if somewhat short, lunch break in sometime around noon. Which brought them to where they were now; on the ground about two kilometers out of Kuro-ba Chuku, and began to plan their next move. It wouldn't take them all that long to reach Kuro-ba Chuku from where they were, even if they moved at a walk, however it was mid to late afternoon already and while they did have a few hours of sunlight left, night was not all that far off. They had not been given a time frame for how long this mission was supposed to take. Tsunade knew that with so many unknowns there was no way to gauge when it would be completed (however, if she didn't hear from them in two weeks – including either Sakura or Naruto sending a message back via a summons stating that they were still working on things – she was going to be sending an ANBU team to check up and run the potential rescue).

Now that they were closer to their target, they needed to proceed with caution. The plan was to do the preliminary scouting to assess the situation so as to get a good idea about what was going on in the settlement before they went rushing in. Once they had enough details to have a somewhat better clue what they were looking at (mainly if they were up against something natural, viral/bacterial, manmade, or 'act of kami'), Hinata activated her byakugan to scan the area remotely while the others took up formation around her. Slowly and cautiously they approached, taking in every detail of their surroundings as they could; so far nothing. Or at least, nothing out of the ordinary to indicate that there was a problem, never mind what the problem could be. In some ways it was a good sign – there was nothing to indicate patrols by (potentially) enemy ninjas which meant that the chance of that particular scenario happening had gone down. But in other ways it was a bad sign, at least as far as the survival of the miners, their families, and those of any support personnel that might have followed them into the settlement was concerned – no patrols or signs of human life could mean that there were no humans left alive to make such signs, and just because the people were gone didn't mean things were safe; unmanned traps and deadly pathogens could take them out just as easily as a nuke-nin's kunai, if they weren't careful enough. More so perhaps, because an armed nuke-nin was more of a visible threat so the temptation to lower their guard wouldn't be as strong as it would be if there wasn't any obvious sign of danger. A few meters away, just almost at the edge of the tree line, they stopped.

"I see nothing." Hinata said with a frown after getting a good look at the settlement itself.

"Nothing?" Sakura asked, worry tingeing her voice.

Hinata shook her head, fully aware of the absence of the insidious voice that whispered that perhaps she'd see something – anything really – if she were just a bit _better_, if her eyes had her cousin Neji's range and focus. The nothing wasn't a case of a lack of sight on her part; she could see into the closest section of the settlement just fine down to the birds roosting on a few trees and the mice nesting under the floorboards. But beyond that there was nothing human. "There's nobody there; alive or dead."

This revelation struck the group dumbfounded. Back in Konoha they had made extensive plans for what they would potentially encounter in Kuro-ba Chuku, even rating the likelihood of various scenarios. But no matter what they had come up with, there had been one single factor that had been taken into account across all of them: there would be people at Kuro-ba Chuku, hopefully alive but even if dead they would be there. Should have been there. Yet if Hinata was right (and they had no reason not to believe that she wasn't), they weren't. It was an unexpected revelation and extremely worrying.

"So now what?" Naruto asked, somewhat uncomfortable. He was getting a bad feeling about this; kind of a prickling feeling at the back of his neck that screamed at him to run. Not that he would though – he'd never become Hokage if he ran every time things felt badly off on a mission.

"We go in for a closer look." Sakura replied with a verbal shrug; what else could they do. It wasn't like they had much of a choice about the matter. None of them liked this, but it was more important than ever to find out what had happened here. If there wasn't anyone there like Hinata had said, then they needed to find out not only where they were now but, perhaps more importantly, **why** everyone had left.

Steeling themselves with grim resolve, they broke cover and carefully approached the settlement itself, taking everything in. At first glance, one would be hard pressed to find anything out of the ordinary other than the emptiness and relative quiet. It wasn't until they started checking the buildings on the outskirts of the settlement that that air of utter _wrongness_ started to become more and more prevalent. The buildings were, to a one, dark and empty of human habitation. And if that was not enough of an indication about something being terribly off about the settlement, then what they saw when they entered into the buildings was enough to set off warning bells and lights in a spectacular display. The miners, their support staff, and their families had kept their places neat and there really wasn't anything out of place. It was a subtle (blink and you miss it) sign, somewhat more apparent in the houses than the tool storage shed or infirmary, but it was undeniably there; scattered throughout the homes and businesses (and to a much lesser extent, the streets and yards) were the signs of people's lives – tools, food, books… all of it was left out as if whoever had been using it had just gotten up and walked away. Naruto suppressed a shiver as he looked at a now empty tea kettle sitting on a cold camp stove. This was just too close to being a ghost thing for him (I mean, that's how the stories starts right? Something strange happens, people go missing without a clue, some chump gets roped into finding out what happened, and then bam; murdering ghosts everywhere you looked).

The four of them continued to make their way through the settlement in formation, thoroughly examining every building they came, getting closer and closer to the mine itself that had created the settlement. Perhaps due to the high value placed on the primary ore they were after, the mine itself was somewhat different than the standard open pit design that most iron mines favored. Instead it started out as a slope mine, which allowed the operation to stay hidden away from prying eyes, but took on open pit properties underground as the extent of the vein (both in terms of size and shape) started to favor that strategy. It wasn't an imposing structure, given how much of it was underground and set into a cliff-face; simply a smallish wooden building with a tin roof nestled right up against the cliff. The shack was neat and mostly empty with only a few spare pieces of equipment lined up in their proper places waiting on miners who, it was becoming more and more apparent, weren't coming. The door to the mine proper was closed but not locked, and Hinata couldn't see any sign of a cave in in the range of her sight – which still didn't rule out that theory since she couldn't see the entirety of the mine from where they stood (it was doubtful that even her cousin Neji or her father Hiashi, whose long distance sight outpaced hers, would be able to thanks to the interference of the chakra iron). There was no help for it then; they'd have to go in and explore the entire mine.

Deeper and deeper they went, finding nothing but what they had found in the settlement above – that is, nothing beyond the abandoned artifacts of a mine – until at last they reached the 'end' of the mine. Both town and mine were clear in a way that the answers weren't, and that hadn't been accounted for in any of their plans (and yes, they had come up for a plan for what to do in case nothing had happened beyond no one in Kuro-ba Chuku bothering to tell Konoha anything – it involved non-lethal fists, heads perhaps meeting other heads, and nagging lectures). After all, who had ever heard of entire groups of people just up and vanishing into thin air without a trace?

"It's getting late, and I for one don't like the idea of spending the night here. I think we should head back up above ground, out of the settlement, and strike a camp about five kilometers away; we can always talk over plans for the investigation there." Sakura pointed out. No one objected to that – none of them (Naruto especially) were particularly looking forward to spending a night in an apparently haunted mine (since after all, what natural thing could've done something like this?) – and as quickly as caution would allow, that is what they did.

"So," Sakura began as the group gathered around the fire, opening up the floor for planning. Dusk was falling now, and camp had gone up quick enough – even with Naruto trapping for paranoid (and at least they probably wouldn't have to worry about food; traps didn't tell the difference between people and animals after all), "What we know for certain is that at the last count there were slightly over two hundred people living in Kuro-ba Chuku – a mix of mostly men with some women and children, the last shipment of chakra iron was seven months ago which was in accordance to their delivery schedule, this last shipment was the last known contact with the settlement, two months ago Konoha started to hear accounts of something wrong regarding the settlement – the rumors Tsunade-sama had mentioned, the settlement itself is abandoned and has been for quite some time, the same goes for the mine itself, there is no sign of a struggle or attack, and there's no sign that this was a planed abandonment. Which leads us to two/three basic questions; where did they go, why did they leave, and what should our next move be."

"I think that our priority should be to find where everyone went; if we can find them then we can work out how they got there." Tenten pointed out. The others nodded at that; what Tenten had said made sense.

"Do you think they could still be alive?" Hinata asked quietly, falling back on the old habit of pushing her index fingers together. She might have been a bit more confident than she used to be as a genin, but she still was a bit self-conscious – especially in the presence of her crush Naruto (luckily she had mostly gotten over the whole blushing like a tomato and fainting thing when Naruto talked to her).

Naruto cocked his head to the side as he considered Hinata's question. Certainly the settlers being alive made a good bit of sense given what little they knew. After all, what purpose would moving all those people only to kill them serve – especially since it seems the whole motivation for it wasn't to take control of the mine. Of course, that was assuming that the cause of the mass disappearance was an outside human source; that is to say, some foreign entity, be they enemy ninjas from one of the other hidden villages or bandits, had come in and abducted the settlement's people. There was always a chance that this was some sort of weird natural thing (or even supernatural thing, although Naruto was praying that wasn't the case. Natural could be fought against in a way) that wasn't enemy action. Like maybe they all went crazy at the same time and jumped in a lake to drown or something. "Seems more likely than not." he said with a nod to himself.

"Alive or not – and at this time, I **am** leaning more toward alive than dead at this point considering the information we've managed to uncover (as little as it was…) – we still have to find where they were taken to. Which goes into figuring out **why** they were taken." Sakura said.

"Do we **know** that they were taken, or are we guessing that they were?" Tenten brought up. It was a very valid point; what evidence had they found that indicated the people of the settlement hadn't decided on a whim to oh say, all go on vacation in Taki no Kuni for example. It was a large assumption to make, and in their line of work, assumptions had an appalling tendency to become fatal.

"Not for certain, no, but the odds are in that favor. Nearly two hundred people just don't decide to wake up and wander off without telling anyone on a whim one day; there has to be some sort of rational explanation for it, and all the ones that don't involve someone else coming in and carting them off to do kami knows what, would have left plenty of evidence for us to find back at the settlement." Sakura countered.

"Maybe they got eaten by an angry ghost or aliens abducted them." Naruto mused.

"Naruto, don't be an idiot." Sakura threatened, fist raised to wallop him one (the fact that she hadn't actually hit him was a surly a sign of how far she'd come these past three years. Old Sakura wouldn't have bothered to hold back). Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. He knew that he would've deserved it if she had hit him; what he said had been pretty far out there (like something Ero-senin/Jiraiya would come up with if he ever switched over to science fiction or horror for the basis of his pervy books. And he was **never** going to let on to him about such ideas no matter how much Ero-senin/Jiraiya pestered him for ideas for his next book even if – when – he was somehow tricked into editing his latest work. **That** was a promise and he did his damned best to always keep his word; believe it!) so he would have deserved it.

"Well, whatever happened to them, we still need to figure out where they might've gone. Assuming that they were taken just before the rumors of their disappearance started cropping up – which I think we're going to have to assume since we have no clue as to exactly when they disappeared – they could be anywhere in the Elemental Nation by now. Even traveling at the speed of a civilian, two months is plenty of time to make it to the far borders of Kaze no Kuni, Kaminari no Kuni or Tsuchi no Kuni" Tenten pointed out.

"True, but the logistics of such a move would be a nightmare. You're dealing with close to two hundred people of varying ages, not all of whom are in good enough shape to be walking most of the day – and that's not counting factoring in the possibility that someone would be reckless and desperate enough to pull an escape attempt to maybe try to get somewhere where they could send to Konoha for help freeing the rest of them, if it was a forced abduction. And while they might not have been ninjas, these were seasoned miners who I'm sure wouldn't have been total pushovers. Which leads us right back to the questions of who could've taken them and how they managed to do it. Since they didn't take the mine, that rules out the other hidden villages; chakra iron's too valuable a resource not to take – especially for the smaller villages." Sakura said.

"What about Orochimaru?" Hinata asked.

"It's possible." Sakura admitted sourly. It would have been all too like the famed snake sannin to do something like this; Orochimaru had cared little to nothing about such things like ethics and would have felt no guilt about marching over men, women, and children to their grizzly deaths as fodder for his human experimentation. Yet something about it just didn't seem to fit. These people were civilians, not ninja – and certainly not the kekkei genkai carriers that Orochimaru seemed so fascinated by. What could he have thought to gain by using them for whatever sick experiment he was getting off on? And why leave the mine alone since he could probably use the chakra iron like any other leader of a hidden village. Now granted, Oto probably didn't concern itself with the manufacture of non-human weaponry, but weapons made out of chakra conductive metal tended to be jealously guarded resources which made them hard to come by on the open market – and even on the black market, the price was usually exorbitant enough to deter the bulk sales needed to supply even a small village at the most basic level. If nothing else, the mine could've been used as a bargaining chip with another village. But then again, Orochimaru was certifiably fucking insane, so who the hell knew why he did anything that he did.

"Damn it!" Naruto growled as he shot up vigorously rubbing his head in frustration, "We just don't have enough answers to even figure out where the hell to even begin!"

"Calm down Naruto." Sakura snapped her own frustration coloring her voice, "Look, we're all tired right now, so why don't we just turn in for the night? In the morning, we'll go over the map for likely places within say… two hundred kilometers of the settlement… where you could hide roughly two hundred people or bodies, and then start checking those places out. Now who's on first watch?"

It had been a long shot, but in the end it had been a bust just like every other spot they had tried in their search. No bodies (and at this point they felt that it was safe to assume that there was no one left alive anymore), no blood, not even so much as a scrap of cloth to show that humans had been there. It was disappointing and frustrating all at once. Moreover, it felt like failure as the only information they had was a list of what they hadn't discovered. It might have been a bit of a bitter pill to swallow, but all they could do now was inform the Hokage about their (complete lack of) progress and await further orders. Most likely they'd be recalled back to Konoha and replaced with more experienced and specialized teams (at least one team to secure the Kuro-ba Chuku chakra iron mine and another to investigate what had happened there), which they could understand the necessity for but didn't have to particularly like. It was probably all for the best that they'd be called back; they were all a bit tired from staying on high alert for so long without anything solid to trigger the fight or flight response.

Perhaps that is why what happened, happened. Hinata had had to release her byakugan in order to conserve her chakra while they traveled at speed back to Kuro-ba Chuku/their designated campsite, and the rest of them were doing their best to compensate for the loss of her extended sight. They had not run into any trouble on the way to the small lake they had just investigated, so while they didn't relax their guard entirely, they felt that they could take the small risk of not having Hinata travel with an active byakugan (next time – and hopefully there would **be** a next time – they would not take that luxury even if it limited Hinata's effectiveness in battle due to imminent chakra exhaustion.

In the time it took for Naruto (who had point) to notice that they were approaching a pair of unknown ninja and call for his group to halt, both groups managed to collide (nearly literally in Naruto's case, which would have been a **really** bad thing considering who the other ninjas were). Surprised, the two groups jumped back a bit to give themselves a bit of time to size the other up and figure out what they wanted to do (having recognized each other during the near hit). Kisame smirked and readied Samehada even as Naruto made a dozen shadow clones and Tenten grabbed her/a weapons scroll.

"Not you guys again; quit stalking me." Naruto ground out.

Kisame rolled his eyes; he and Itachi hadn't expected to run into the Kyubi Jinchuriki at this time - in fact, they had been wandering around awaiting further orders - but they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If Naruto was here, and since they only had the Kyubi and Hachibi left to collect, they might as well try to grab him now rather than wait until later when he might be better protected. "We aren't staking you brat." he shot back. Mentally Itachi face palmed; was this really the time to do the whole witty banter shtick?

In response, Naruto lobbed a kunai at them - which they easily dodged, as well as the attached blast note when it went off. Kisame rushed in swinging Samehada aiming to take out Naruto's legs only to have to raise the great sword in defense from the hailstorm of kunai, shuriken, and senbon that Tenten had sent his way. The Naruto he was aiming at jumped back a bit to stay out of sword range.

Meanwhile, a pair of Narutos had engaged Itachi, throwing a furious barrage of punches and kicks with ever mounting frustration behind them as Itachi either dodged or blocked them seemingly with little to no effort on his part. But the blows were having the effect of forcing Itachi to ever so slowly back away to better avoid them. Right into Sakura who threw one of the chakra infused mega-punches she, much like her shisho, was starting to become known for. It missed – barely; Itachi had been forced to pull a last minute kawarimi and retreat to higher ground, which gave him space enough to launch attacks in support of his partner.

Kisame was having a great spot of fun and grinning madly. He was mostly playing with them, as evidenced by the fact that he was sticking to his taijutsu and kenjutsu rather than pulling out any of his devastating ninjustsu, and it should have been clear to his opponents that he was doing so. Diagonal swing to dispel one of Naruto's kage bushin. Sidestepping block to avoid a rain of shuriken courtesy of Tenten. Turn and swing in a low sweep to try and catch Naruto as well as taking out a number of clones the boy had summoned to replace the ones that had already been taken out and then some. Lean to one side to dodge a rasengan and bring an arm around to clothesline the wielder; hide surprise as the clone dispelled. Leer at Tenten; guts and a weapons nut – just his kind of girl. Jump to avoid a juuken strike then pull an emergency kawarimi into a large tree in order to collapse in pain privately as the juuken strike wasn't avoided entirely and he took the strike in the balls (much to Hinata's horror as she lit up in a furious blush over the unfortunate hit, and a mass sympathetic wince from Naruto and his clones since no man who would claim that title would wish that fate on even their worst enemy).

Itachi was having a bit of a problem with his fight as well, mostly stemming from the fact that he didn't actually want to kill any of his opponents – or really even seriously incapacitate them (not that he would stay his hand if it came down to that – he wasn't stupid after all; unlike his partner {or even most of the rest of the Akatsuki}, he just preferred not to kill or maim his opponents unless absolutely necessary). Sticking to mostly non-lethal techniques was a big risk as it basically gave you a huge handicap in the battle, as well as making the battle go longer than it normally would've had lethal techniques been used; the longer a battle went on, the greater the chance that you'd be hurt or even killed thanks to a lucky shot from one of the people you were battling against. Constantly on the move in order to avoid Sakura and Naruto's very much lethal level attacks (which just upped the difficulty for him since, while _he_ wasn't trying to hurt his opponents too much, the same could hardly be said for them), he peppered the field of battle with shuriken, kunai, and low leveled katons like Housenka no Jutsu; aiming more for Naruto than Sakura as between the kage bushin Naruto liked to spam the field with and the near legendary regenerative powers that most if not all jinchuriki had, Naruto could afford to take more damage than Sakura could without risking major injury or even death. Not hindered by Itachi's self imposed restraints and perhaps fueled a bit more with the desperation of ones defending their lives and liberty, both Naruto and Sakura 'went wild'. Naruto was a constant maelstrom of attacks from all sides as he threw – sometimes literally – clone after clone at Itachi, replacing the ones that Itachi managed to dispel almost as fast as Itachi could dispel them. Sakura was no slouch either; adding her own flurry of projectile weapons and potentially devastating chakra enhanced punches and kicks. There was no denying that these teens were skilled (he hadn't seen the blow that Hinata landed on Kisame exactly {a combination of his slowly worsening eyesight and his having to focus all his attention on his own fight} that had taken his partner – at least temporarily – out of the fight, but he could almost feel it), and privately Itachi could admit to being more than a little impressed. But despite the golden opportunity that had been gifted to them in the guise of their unexpected encounter with the Kyubi's jinchuriki, they hadn't been actually pursuing him at this time and they were trolling right along the line where the fight would cost them more than they would end up gaining. There would be plenty of chances later to go after Naruto when they had the orders to could afford the potential losses that a battle against a jinchuriki would incur. Now however was not that time so Itachi was free act as he saw fit in regard to the blonde, which meant that he could decide whether to disengage (or at least attempt to – Naruto and his friends didn't seem like they were willing to just let him and Kisame go even if they made it clear that they were leaving and weren't going to attack them further that day) or to up the lethality of their attack and make a serious go at capturing Naruto. "Kisame." he snapped as he pulled a tricky combination of kawarimis and shunshins, as well as cranking out a couple of kage bushin of his own, in order to put as much distance between him and the others as they would allow him. One of the clones made its way over to where Kisame was painfully perched, still not recovered from the balls shot he'd been on the receiving end of (and damned if a juuken strike was devastatingly disabling – even if it missed one of the tenketsu the chakra introduced through the hit still caused lasting damage and pain; considering where Kisame had gotten hit, it was perhaps a good thing that he had no real desire to have children since his balls had basically been fried), "We're going."

Kisame pouted (not that he'd admit to it, even under torture) through the pain, but bowed to Itachi's decision to retreat. He wasn't so gracious about accepting the clone's help, not wanting to admit that he was hurt badly enough to warrant it (and yes, he was going to seek out a medic to make sure there wasn't any long lasting damage down there. While he frankly didn't care about having kids or not {or more kids since there was always a chance that he'd gotten one of his past sexual conquests pregnant since he didn't really bother taking proper precautions, instead leaving that sort of thing to the women}, he wouldn't be too happy if he couldn't get hard anymore – if that was the case, the Hyuuga bitch was going to go down the next time he ran into her; maybe even the rest of the blasted family just to be on the safe side), but he couldn't deny that he was hurting – possibly bad enough to not be able to continue fighting if he needed it; at least not at the level that he'd need to (if he ever ended up on the wrong end of a juuken strike again it would be too soon. Man that packed a punch; hitting harder and longer than a normal hit). He followed Itachi away from Naruto and the rest as fast as he could manage while not quite able to walk all that well and adding his own collection of kunai and shuriken to Itachi's hail of covering fire in hopes of dissuading their opponents from following and actually letting them make their retreat. Luckily Naruto and company seemed to get what they were trying to do and broke off their attack without bothering to pursue the retreating nuke-nin. And while nothing was said between the partners, they came to an agreement that they would **not** mention this little debacle to anyone else (the doctor Kisame was going to check out to ensure that there had been no permanent damage done to his balls not withstanding); it would be their little secret.

Somewhat battered and more than a little weary (and in Hinata's case, **_just_** on the borderline of chakra exhaustion since she'd kept her byakugan going ever since their run in with the Akatsuki – which she was most emphatically **not** going to think about since doing so would light her up like a lantern in the red lantern district), the team stood grim faced before their Hokage. The mission had not been the utter cluster fuck that had been the mission to stop Uchiha Sasuke from going through with his defection to Oto, but it had not gone well either. It was time for the debriefing to begin. "Report." Tsunade barked.

"We reached Kuro-ba Chuku in the mid afternoon and began our preliminary investigation. A thorough search of both the settlement and the chakra iron mine revealed that they both had been completely abandoned sometime prior. The abandonment seemed to have been carried out without any apparent pre-planning as there was evidence of their having been interrupted in the middle of tasks, however, there were absolutely no sign of struggle or violence. Once our initial investigation was completed, we retreated back to our base camp in order to go over our findings and plan our next move. From there we decided to expand our search further out to likely areas within a one hundred kilometer radius of the settlement without crossing out of Hi no Kuni where two hundred people could have possibly been hidden; returning to our base camp as needed. Further investigation of the sites we had identified, as well as any likely sites we passed on our way to those sites turned up no sign of the missing settlers/people or of the people who could have taken them. Once we had exhausted the last of our leads, we decided to fall back to our base camp in order to send on our report via one of Naruto's toad summons and await further orders. En route to base camp from the last site we investigated, we encountered S-classed nuke-nin Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi, who we ended up engaging in a brief battle which ended with Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi retreating after taking a good deal of damage. After that we returned to base camp, struck it, and returned to Konoha at top speed." Sakura said. As leader of this little expedition, it was up to her to deliver the initial report.

Tsunade frowned as she took in the report, going over what the various implications were. None of them were good. First off, you had the mysterious disappearance of one hundred and eighty nine people with the only indication that something had gone wrong being the fact they had disappeared sometime in the middle of their day. Then you had the equally disturbing run in with members of the Akatsuki by a team containing a known target of theirs – ones that they had run into before in the personages of Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi. That the team had walked away with only a few scratches that were easily healed and Hinata's chakra reserves starting to edge toward dangerously low – which could have been easily explained by her near constant use of the byakugan in addition to using chakra in order to enhance her speed during that one last frantic push to reach home – showed that Itachi and Kisame hadn't been serious in their bid to capture Naruto. And it was likely that Naruto and the others knew it. "Do you have a probable date of disappearance?"

"From the condition of things, I would guess sometime between the delivery of their last shipment and when the rumors of their disappearance started, making it at the very least two months ago." Sakura said as she shook her head.

Tsunade frowned at this. Two months was a long time to be missing without a trace and led to some rather unfortunate implications. Either the residents of the settlement were dead, and beyond any form of rescue, or they were still alive but in the hands of human slave traders (something which actually wasn't legal in Hi no Kuni but much like banditry, had yet to be completely eradicated – especially since some of the smaller countries did allow such things knowingly {even if it was publicly frowned upon}). It was hard to say which was the worse fate, but either way it didn't look good for the people of Kuro-ba Chuku since it would not be cost effective to mount a massive search for them; as cold and unfeeling as it seemed, miners – yes, even experienced ones – were a shu a dozen while chakra iron mines were much more rare, and therefore precious. They couldn't afford to waste resources on people who not only may or may not be alive, but may or may not be recoverable even if they were found alive. They still had control of the mine, which sadly was the more important thing. "Any theories as to what might have happened?"

"Well Naruto thinks that they all got abducted by aliens," Sakura replied, rolling her eyes to show exactly what she thought of **_that_** suggestion. Naruto in return just rubbed the back of his head in response to the scrutiny being levied at him, "Hinata however, thinks that the abductors might have used a mass genjutsu to lure everyone away peacefully."

In a way, Hinata's theory made sense. Make a person think that they had a reason to go wherever the caster of the genjutsu wanted them to go of their own volition – in a way that would not give the victim reason to think that they were under a genjutsu that they needed to throw off (a somewhat easier feat with civilians since they normally didn't get the training ninjas did to recognize when they were under a genjutsu and throw it off) – and they would gladly walk off a cliff, and there wouldn't be any evidence to suggest that it hadn't been a suicide. Which fit nicely with the few facts they had; everything looked like the people of Kuro-ba Chuku had merely stepped away for a moment and not bothered to come back.

However there were still a few things that just didn't fit; like why take the people but not control of the mine (and wasn't that the sixty four million ryo question)? Perhaps they were going about this all wrong; getting too caught up in trying to figure out the possible 'why' for the disappearance than focusing on the how or the who. But the problem was that without any real clues to go on (and considering at least two months had passed since the mass abduction, any possible scent trail would be too old for even the best of the Inuzuka trackers to follow which rendered that particular line of possible investigation basically a dead end), they were pretty much grasping at straws. It was easy then to get caught up in thought loops like the twisted tangle that was the who-how-why (if they could perhaps just find the answer to one of those, then that would lead to the answers for the other two parts of that equation. Finding out who did it would lead to why they did it and how they did it based on what they could find out about the who. How it was done would hand them who had done it – or at least give them a good list of possible leads to follow up on, which was almost as good as knowing exactly who did considering their current level of knowledge – and once they had that they could find out why. Much like learning how it was done, learning why it was done would set them on the trail of who had done it which would lead to finding out how it was done) or the glaring inconsistency staring them in the face was the fact that the people had been taken but control of the mine was not. **_That_** went against virtually everything she/they had been taught about in regards to the allocations of resources; even if your primary goal was to take the people for whatever dark purpose you had in mind, common sense dictated that you just didn't ignore a valuable resource such as the mine. Even if you had no use for the chakra iron yourself, or no ability to mine and refine it, you could always sell the mine which would net you a pretty itome and who wouldn't want (or couldn't use) more money?

Still her course of action was clear. As cold as it might seem, she would have to forget about the people of Kuro-ba Chuku (for the foreseeable future anyway; perhaps if they had a good clue where they were and that they were alive they could revisit the issue at that time. But until then…) and focus on securing the Kuro-ba Chuku mine; at least two to three full teams at all times (which two teams would of course be rotated around, much like the border patrol was) with access to messenger hawks in case of an emergency and bring in another mining team to get production back on track. Put a bug in certain ears like those of the Nara and certain others in the T&I department about the mysteries of the situation; see what they could come up with after kicking the puzzle around their minds for a while. So that decided, Tsunade switched focus to the other bit of news that Sakura's team had brought her: their unexpected run in with the Akatsuki. "When you encountered Kisame and Itachi, did they say anything?"

"Well, Kisame said that they weren't stalking me…Naruto admitted, "But other than that, nothing but Itachi calling for a retreat."

Which really wasn't much of an answer – or at least, not the kind of one that Tsunade was hoping for. It was however a true answer and somewhat in line with what they knew about the pair of nuke-nin – Itachi especially. It was frankly ridiculous to expect some sort of evil villain declaration stating how they pulled off their dastardly elaborate plot which would give them all the answers they needed in relation to the mystery at Kuro-ba Chuku. After all, this was real life not a movie, and real life was rarely if ever that convenient.


End file.
